


Routine

by Altum_Videtur



Series: Ni kar'tayl gai sa'ad [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-19
Updated: 2020-01-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:34:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22322647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Altum_Videtur/pseuds/Altum_Videtur
Summary: A routine mission to investigate droid sightings on the core world of Nanta-Ri goes awry. Set between Mystery of a Thousand Moons and Storm Over Ryloth.
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Ahsoka Tano
Series: Ni kar'tayl gai sa'ad [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1604194
Comments: 1
Kudos: 75





	Routine

“This was supposed to be a routine mission.” Ahsoka said as she reached out with the Force, trying to get a feel for the destroyer droid pinning her and Sparx down without actually popping her head out from behind the overturned speeder they were taking cover behind. Sure, at this range she could likely stick her head out and duck or dodge anything the droid sent at her, but without her lightsaber she really didn’t want to take the risk.

“You’re telling me.” Sparx grumbled. She’d never met Sparx and Strider before today, but the gruff pair of ARC troopers had quickly grown on her, and now Strider had been separated from them by the mine than had claimed her saber, and Sparx was down with a hit to the leg. “Nanta-Ri’s a core world—”

Ahsoka held a finger up to interrupt him. She could spare enough focus to _talk,_ but not enough to listen, really. There was a long silence, then… _There!_ She raised her hand and made a crushing motion, and there was a horrendous screeching of metal from ahead of them as the droidika rolled into a ball in a more destructive manner than its usual method. “Got it!”

Ever since the blue shadow virus incident, where two destroyer droids had forced her back and taken out multiple clones under her protection, she’d vowed to get more adept at dealing with them. While she’d still have trouble pulling that trick while deflecting blaster fire, it was a use of the force she wouldn’t have been able to manage at all a month ago, and she was feeling smug about it.

Ahsoka stood, and immediately ducked to give Sparx a hand up. He shifted his weight onto the crutch they’d cobbled together from a speeder they’d found in several pieces a few blocks back, and they slowly started making their way down the street toward the emergency extraction point. It was a difficult walk, the streets were laid out in a horrendous maze of dead-ends and roads that looped back on each other, and were littered with craters and rubble from destroyed buildings. When they’d landed they’d expected a busy city that was worried about droid sightings in the nearby forests, and they’d found a city that had been pounded into the ground by heavy artillery.

They were three blocks away from the extraction point when they rounded the corner and came face to face with more destroyer droids than she had ever seen in one place before. Sparx reacted instantly, grabbing Ahsoka and leaping into a building that miraculously had four intact walls and a window large enogh to jump thorough. He then screamed, having put far too much of his weight on his injured leg. A steady stream of blaster fire started hitting the building wall.

Ahsoka reached out with the Force intending to duplicate her trick from earlier, and quickly found all of her focus invested in trying to hold the walls intact as they were pounded by blaster fire. The droids were spreading out to surround them and cut off their escape, but most of their fire was focused on the front wall. It was weaker than the others and starting to crumble, despite her infusing it with her will, with the desire that it _hold._ It wouldn’t hold forever, she was just buying time.

“Any ideas?” Sparx was wearing his helmet, but she could hear the grin in his voice. She wasn’t sure how he could grin at a time like this, but it made her feel less grim so she wasn’t going to complain.

“Yeah, try not to die.” She said. “Seriously, those blasters aren’t quiet and we’re not far from evac, we just need to survive until they get here.”

“Can evac deal with these?”

Evac was a gunship. Thirty troopers, minus her, Sparx, and Strider, minus Pyrus, Gamut, and Pollux squads which had also gone out to search the city for droids or survivors, meant twelve clones. Twelve clones versus what she’d estimate to be two-dozen destroyer droids. “No,” she said, “no they can’t.”

⁂

“This was supposed to be a routine mission!” Anakin yelled over the cacophony of battle. He was fighting defensively, keeping blaster fire away from the squad behind him as they rushed toward what they were pretty sure was a destroyer droid factory hidden deep in Republic space.

“Are you saying this is out of the ordinary?” Obi-Wan yelled back. A full-frontal assault would be a terrible idea for most people, with long sight lines, very little cover, and far too many droids, but with two of the best Jedi in the Order leading the charge, well, Anakin and Obi-Wan were all the cover you needed.

Another moment of their frantic rush, and then they were through what had been the main doors before Anakin had, in an impressive bit of Force-enhanced accuracy, remote-control targeted a pinpoint artillery shot from outside the droid artillery’s maximum range. Sometimes, Anakin’s skill even impressed himself.

“Yeah!” Anakin yelled, “That was a rush! I haven’t been fired at by that many droids at once since Geonosis! No casualties, Rex?”

“No casualties, sir.” The captain said.

Anakin had been having a bad feeling about this whole mission. He wasn’t sure why, and he’d been hesitant to voice it since it had been the first thing they’d done in a while that Obi-Wan _hadn’t_ had a bad feeling about, so he was trying to mask his anxiety under speed and exuberance. He didn’t think he had Obi-Wan fooled, but that meant that he was able to brag without Obi-Wan calling him on it, so he’d take what he could get.

Still, as they progressed through the corridors of the factory, they were finding little enough resistance that it was giving him a reason for concern. “Trap?” He said to Obi-Wan.

It was Rex that answered. “I don’t think so, generals. We haven’t taken artillery fire even though we know they had artillery, there were enough blasters at the doors to make us want to find a slower way around but they were mostly stationary guns and there’s been hardly anything once we were through, I think they’ve evacuated.”

“They’re buying time.” Obi-Wan said. “And it’s worked. All our forces are at the obvious distraction.”

“Not all of them.” Rex said. There was a hint of concern in his voice, and suddenly Anakin _knew_ what his bad feeling had been about.

“The city!” He yelled. “They’re evacuating the droidikas through the city!”

⁂

“It’s been an honor serving with you, sir.” Sparx said, and Ahsoka felt a mix of emotions she didn’t want to face run through her. She could hear his unspoken words. _Leave me. Save yourself._ She didn’t want to leave him behind, and part of her felt ashamed for even considering it.

The building was starting to fall apart, though, and she didn’t want to die like this. If she were honest with herself, though, she didn’t think very much of her chances to escape even without trying to protect an injured clone. With her saber, sure, but it was little more than a kyber crystal inside a piece of scrap metal right now.

Part of the wall had caved in, and she was starting to gather up her will to run for it, when she felt a wave of fury in the Force, and Anakin’s voice called out “Hey! Scrapheaps! Am I interrupting something?”

The blaster fire stopped for a moment, then started again, towards Anakin. Ahsoka cautiously popped her head out from behind the wall, where—

Anakin was deflecting the blaster fire. All of it. She didn’t know you could do that with a lightsaber. She’d seen Master Windu move that fast when he demonstrated the seventh form to her saber class once, but seeing that kind of speed in action… After a moment, she realized she should probably be helping, and raised her hand and will to tear apart a droidika, and then another. Then Anakin waved his hand and destroyed another one, and the remaining droids decided to cut their losses and rolled away.

“Miss me, Snips?” Anakin grinned at her, and then stumbled. She got to his side in time to get him to the ground more gently than him simply toppling over, but he still went down hard. He was out cold, and her awe was quickly replaced by worry, getting more and more frantic until Obi-Wan showed up on a speeder bike, took one look at the scene, and put a hand over his face. “Oh _Anakin,”_ he said, and Ahsoka knew he was fine.

⁂

The mission hadn’t been a failure, but it hadn’t been a success, either. They’d destroyed a destroyer droid factory, but the separatists had successfully evacuated everything not nailed down, and they hadn’t been able to pursue with their leadership all on the ground. Casualties were low, but there were too many close calls in the city for that to be much comfort. Oh, and her Master was still passed out, although Kix had said that he wasn’t unconscious anymore, just asleep.

Still, Ahsoka worried.

“You really should get some sleep, padawan.” She hadn’t noticed Obi-Wan coming in. “If you’re really that concerned, I’ll take watch for a bit. I can write these reports just as easily from the med-bay.”

She looked up at him. He had a fond smile on his face, and she wasn’t quite sure if it was directed at her or at Anakin. “I still don’t really understand, Master. I know you said it was Force exhaustion, but from a minute of combat? It doesn’t make sense.”

“Ah.” Obi-Wan said. “I didn’t realize you didn’t know, he outran me there.”

Ahsoka blinked in surprise. “You were on a speeder bike.”

“Yes.” Said Obi-Wan.

And she’d thought Skyguy was done shocking her with ridiculous and impossible stunts for the day.

**Author's Note:**

> I had something planned for part two that I'm still not very happy with, so while I try to wrangle it, have an action bit instead!


End file.
